Call for 'suicide help' law change

Former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt is to lead demands for a law change to protect those who help terminally-ill people to travel to assisted suicides.

She said she had tabled an amendment, supported by MPs from all sides of the Commons, to the Government's Coroners and Justice Bill.

Although it is designed to provoke debate and is not expected to be pushed to a vote.

The move sparked immediate condemnation from opponents of assisted suicide who warned it would lead to "an opening of the floodgates".

A number of high-profile cases have put the issue firmly in the spotlight and more than 100 MPs have signed a Commons motion calling for it to be debated.

Paralysed rugby player Daniel James, 23, committed suicide at a clinic run by Dignitas in September last year - leading the Crown Prosecution Service to consider charges against his parents.

Mark and Julie James, from Sinton Green, Worcester, made payments to Swiss clinic Dignitas, sent documents and made travel arrangements to take their son to Switzerland.

But the Director of Public Prosecutions said that although there was enough evidence to pursue charges, and a reasonable chance of securing a conviction, such a prosecution would not be in the public interest.

Last month, multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy lost an Appeal Court bid to secure a guarantee from the DPP that no such charges would be brought if she took advantage of a foreign clinic.

She wants to be sure that if her suffering becomes intolerable, her husband, Cuban violinist Omar Puente, will not be prosecuted if he helps her travel abroad to die in a country where assisted suicide is legal. But three judges ruled Ms Purdy was not legally entitled to the kind of specific guidance she was seeking.